Protecting Yourself From Online Computer Virus Attack and Personal Identity Credit Card Data Hacking

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How to avoid identity theft and credit card hacking


Article Source: http://www.usatoday.com/
After scaring everyone two weeks ago with my predictions of the dangers you will face in cyberspace in 2016, it only seems fair to provide you with a guide to some of the steps you should take to protect yourself from identity theft in the new year. Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself from identity theft.

1. Never give personal information to anyone who contacts you by phone, text message or email unless you have confirmed that the request is legitimate. Caller ID can be fooled to make it appear that a call is legitimate and emails and texts can be sent from hijacked accounts or addresses that may appear legitimate, but are slightly different from the real email address or phone number.

2. Sign up for the Federal Do Not Call list at donotcall.gov to avoid telemarketing calls. Here is the link to sign up for the Do Not Call List. donotcall.gov It is important to remember, however, that the Do Not Call List does not apply to charities so you still may receive telephone calls from people collecting on behalf of legitimate charities, however, you can never be sure when you receive a call purporting to be from a charity whether it is legitimate or not so never give personal information or credit card information over the phone to someone who calls you soliciting for a charity. If you are feeling charitably inclined, go to the real website of the charity where you can safely make your donation.

Read: How to protect yourself against Cyber fraud, Cyber-attack and Virus Computer Data Breach  Hacking on http://onlinevirusprotection.blogspot.com/2016/05/protect-yourself-against-cyber-fraud.html

3. Consider opting out of pre-approved credit card offers. These can be stolen from your mailbox by identity thieves who can then apply for credit in your name. You can opt out of these offers by going to optoutprescreen.com.

4. Check your credit report at each of the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion at least once a year. Often people first become aware of becoming a victim of identity theft when they find fraudulent charges on their credit report and the earlier you become aware of the problem, the easier it is to fix. Because federal law provides the right for you to get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies annually, you should stagger your requests to each of the credit reporting agencies so that you get one report every four months. Get your free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com.

5. While the credit reporting agencies and others tout the use of fraud alerts on your credit reports as a way to help protect you from identity theft, the truth is that fraud alerts by which someone issuing credit in your name is supposed to notify you before issuing credit in your name are not terribly effective and there is no penalty for a company issuing credit to someone in your name without notifying you even if there is a fraud alert on your credit report. A far better choice is to put a credit freeze on your credit report. This will prevent someone from accessing your credit report for purposes of obtaining credit even if they have your Social Security number. Here is a link to a previous column I wrote about credit freezes that explains how to get one.

6. Limit your use of your debit card to use at ATMs. Don't use it for retail purchases because the law provides much more protection from liability when your credit card is illegally used than when your debit card is fraudulently used. In addition, even if your debit card company provides for zero liability, your bank will freeze the bank account you have tied to your debit card while they investigate any fraudulent use of your debit card, which can be tremendously inconvenient.

7. Get an EMV chip credit card, if you don't already have one and if the places you shop still haven't switched over to card processing equipment for the new cards, tell them that they should do so soon. Your shopping will be safer when everyone is using these new cards.

8. Use a strong unique password for each of your accounts. This is particularly important because if you use the same password for all of your accounts, you are more susceptible to identity theft if your password is stolen in a data breach at one of the companies with which you do online business. Having a strong, easy to remember password is not as difficult a task as it may seem. Start with a phrase, such as IHate2 UsePasswords. This is a good combination of capital letters, small letters and a number. Now make it even stronger by adding a couple of symbols such as exclamation points at the end so it now reads IHate2 Use Passwords!!!. This is now your basic password which you can customize for each account by adding a few letters to identify the particular account, such as Ama for your Amazon account so your Amazon password would read IHate2Use Passwords!!!Ama.

9. Security questions are an important part of your online safety. Armed with the answer to your security questions, a hacker can change your passwords and take over your online accounts. Unfortunately, the answers to common security questions, such as your mother's maiden name can be found with little effort by an identity thief. Sometimes, you may unwittingly provide that information yourself on social media where you may provide more information to the public than you realize. The key then is to make your answer to your security question nonsensical. So instead of the answer to your mother's maiden name being "Jones," change it to something like "Grapefruit." No identity thief will guess it and it is silly enough for you to remember.

Read: How to protect yourself against Cyber fraud, Cyber-attack and Virus Computer Data Breach  Hacking on http://onlinevirusprotection.blogspot.com/2016/05/protect-yourself-against-cyber-fraud.html


These are a few of the things you should be doing to protect yourself from identity theft and scams in 2016. In my next column I will give you more tips.

Steve Weisman is a lawyer, a professor at Bentley University and one of the country's leading experts in scams and identity theft. He writes the blog scamicide.com, where he provides daily update information about the latest scams. His new book is Identity Theft Alert.

Two things to bear in Mind while we talk about Protecting yourself Online in order to Prevent Online Identity Theft and being Victim of Cyber-Criminals:

A. Keep in mind that antivirus software protects only your device, not your internet connection. It’s only Secured and Protected Virtual Private Network, VPN can securely protect your internet connection communications between your computer device, servers and websites.

B. A VPN is a must-have utility to protect your privacy and prevent hackers and snoopers from stealing your personal information.